Sunday, March 10, 2013

City farm... country farm

I have returned to the farm.

After spending a month in Lisbon, I am back in nature mode. Before returning we visited our friends Olivia and Paulo in Porto. Our stay was way too brief but enough to visit their incredible veggie patch in a most fantastic community garden. The photos speak for themselves. For me their garden is the best of both worlds, inner-city living with the possibility to retreat to a quiet place, to get your hands dirty, to see things grow, a short step to sustainable living. The fantastic views are the cherry on the icing on the cake. We helped them with weeding, planting strawberries, zucchini, marigolds and sowing coriander. I actually didn't really help that much, I was too distracted with the view and the bits of broken pottery we found when digging up the soil, making this garden also a mini archaeological dig.

Now I am working on a quilt which I have almost finished. A long overdue gift for a friend.

The fields are starting to bloom just enough to give us a tiny taste of Spring. My favorite flower right now is small and vibrant, Lithodora Prostata, "erva das sete sangrias", of the borage family that has a sweet honey flavor, is great to feast on when going for a walk and also perfect to add to salads. There are also in abundance these very delicate yellow flowers. I think they belong to the Narcissus family but I can´t seem to find their name anywhere.

On the farm front we have lots of turnips and their greens, cabbage and plenty of rapini to eat.

Our chickens are young ladies now and the rooster has started to crow, which is a sure way to give away his exact location to the fox that has been hanging around our neighbors farm. Shhhh!